Political Violence and Xenophobia in Western Europe
Summary
Political violence and xenophobia in Western Europe have manifested through a complex interplay of economic, social and historical factors. Austerity policies and cuts to welfare have eroded community cohesion, creating fertile ground for racially or religiously motivated crimes. Large refugee inflows since 2014 have exposed latent local hostilities that are often rooted in past regional experiences of exclusion or extremist legacies. In several countries, far-right parties have capitalised on these tensions, while episodes of arson and targeted attacks against minority housing illustrate the spatial diffusion of hostility. Media narratives—both mainstream and fake news—can amplify fear and legitimise violence, contributing to cycles of social contagion. Efforts to counteract this trend emphasise strengthening intergroup contact, safeguarding vulnerable populations and addressing structural inequalities at regional and national levels.
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Political Violence and Xenophobia in Western Europe publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in political violence and xenophobia in western europe across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Xenophobia: Fear, distrust or hostility towards people perceived as foreign or culturally different.
Political violence: Use of force by non-state or state actors to achieve political objectives, including riots, attacks or armed actions.
Hate crime: Criminal offence motivated by bias against a protected characteristic such as race, religion or ethnicity.
Social cohesion: Degree of connectedness and mutual solidarity among members of a community or society.
References
- Austerity, welfare cuts and hate crime: Evidence from the UK's age of austerity. Journal of Urban Economics (2024).
- Refugees welcome? Understanding the regional heterogeneity of anti-refugee hate crime. Regional Science and Urban Economics (2023).
- Welcome to the Punch. Local exposure to refugees and hate events in Italy. The Annals of Regional Science (2023).
- Media coverage, fake news, and the diffusion of xenophobic violence: A fine-grained county-level analysis of the geographic and temporal patterns of arson attacks during the German refugee crisis 2015–2017. PLOS ONE (2023).
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